Filmmaker D. Smith's raw, provocative, and funny documentary, Kokomo City, that centres the stories of four captivating Black transgender women, in their own words, won both the NEXT Innovator Award and NEXT Audience Award when it world premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It went on to win the Audience Award in the Panorama... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Kristen Lovell & Zackary Drucker reclaim the history of New York’s transgender sex workers with Sundance award-winning The Stroll
Following its award-winning world premiere at Sundance in January, directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s outstanding feature The Stroll went on to open London's prestigious LGBTQ+ film festival BFI Flare, and last week the filmmakers were recognized with the John Schlesinger Award for Best Director of a Documentary at the Provincetown International Film Festival. Rich,... Continue Reading →
Sundance 2023 Film Review: Kokomo City ★★★★
When two-time Grammy nominated songwriter-producer D. Smith, who has appeared on both the Atlanta and Hollywood versions of the reality series Love & Hip Hop, had an idea for a film centering Black transgender sex workers and examining their place within the Black community, she approached several filmmaker friends with the concept. They all turned... Continue Reading →
Lee Laa Ray Guillory wins Queer|Art’s Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists
New York's Queer|Art—founded in 2009 by filmmaker Ira Sachs to support a generation of LGBTQ+ artists that lost mentors to the AIDS Crisis of the 1980s—has just announced that Lee Laa Ray Guillory is the winner of the organization's second annual Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists. The New Orleans-based interdisciplinary artist will... Continue Reading →
The Queer Review meets the cast of Pose ahead of tonight’s final season premiere
Ahead of tonight's final season premiere of Pose on FX, The Queer Review's editor James Kleinmann attended a virtual press conference with a legendary lineup of the show's key cast including Mj Rodriguez, Billy Porter, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, Hailie Sahar, Angel Bismark Curiel, Dyllón Burnside, Sandra Bernhard, Jason A. Rodriguez, plus series co-creator, executive... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Mama Gloria ★★★★
Luchina Fisher’s feature documentary Mama Gloria, currently making its New York premiere at the virtual 11th annual Athena Film Festival at Barnard College until March 14th and receiving its international premiere as part of the UK-wide 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival starting next week, tells the captivating life story of Chicago's septuagenarian Black... Continue Reading →
TV Review: Trans in Trumpland ★★★1/2
At the start of each of the four episodes in the new docu-series Trans in Trumpland, streaming now on Topic, we hear the unsettling words of candidate Trump vowing, "I will do everything in my power to protect our L...G...B...T...Q citizens", as he struggles to utter those letters, followed by snippets of news reports of... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: pop star Mila Jam on her Fierce collaboration with Ultra Naté & Angelica Ross “it’s about empowerment & claiming your fierceness”
Today sees the release of electro pop anthem Fierce, a collaboration between singer-songwriter and DJ Ultra Naté, Pose actress Angelica Ross, and New York pop star and "artivist" Mila Jam. The dance track is a rallying cry, empowering listeners to be Legendary, Necessary and Extraordinary. Aiming to "enlighten, educate, and celebrate the trans community through... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Timothy Ware-Hill & Arnon Manor on their powerful Netflix animated short film Cops and Robbers “Black Lives Matter can’t just be a saying it has to be an act”
The gut-wrenchingly powerful, deeply moving and ultimately hopeful animated short film, Cops and Robbers, directed by Arnon Manor and Timothy Ware-Hill, was written and performed by Ware-Hill in response to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery earlier this year. Ware-Hill had initially filmed himself reciting his own impactful poem and posted the video to social media... Continue Reading →
The Queer Review 2020 – LGBTQ+ highlights of the year
With so many queer spaces, bars, clubs, live venues, theatres, and cinemas closed for much of the year, and festivals cancelled or reimagined as virtual editions, we asked some of friends, including prominent culture makers and performers, to tell us their favourite LGBTQ+ art or events of 2020. Get in touch via social media using... Continue Reading →